At Least 9 Climbers Die on K2

[trysail]

I hadn't realized just how much of a bitch K2 is. Everest gets all the attention, but K2 is a killer. At those altitudes, there's only a third as much oxygen in the atmosphere as there is at sea level. Here I am worrying about 14,000' in a couple of weeks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2_(mountain)
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(Fair Use Excerpt)
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h72oBaBlMgoxUfgjgxCMqOZszKag

At least nine dead on K2, world's 2nd highest peak: tour operators
5 hours ago

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — At least nine climbers were killed and three others are missing after an ice avalanche near the summit of K2, the world's second-highest peak after Mount Everest, Pakistani tour operators said Sunday.

Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, a Dutch, a Pakistani a Norwegian and a Serb died on the 28,251-foot (8,611-metre) peak in remote northern Pakistan, considered by most climbers to be more difficult to scale than Everest.

"I can confirm nine dead and three missing," Nazir Sabir, a celebrated Pakistani mountaineer who scaled K2 in 1981 and whose tour company organised one of the doomed expeditions, told AFP.

"It is the worst tragedy on K2 since 1986, when 12 climbers were killed due to exposure," said Sabir, who confirmed the nationalities of those killed. He said the missing were from France, Pakistan and Austria.

Mohammad Akram, vice president of a company that organised another of the expeditions, told AFP the group had been hit by falling ice as they made their descent on Friday.

An air search and rescue team had been called in to try to find the missing climbers, he said.

The pyramid-shaped K2, which sits on the border between Pakistan and China, is considered by mountaineers to be by far the hardest of the 14 summits over 8,000 metres to scale.

Weather patterns in the high-altitude Karakorum range where the mountain is located are extremely volatile, and K2's steep slopes demand a high level of technical knowhow.

Spanish media, quoting a blog linked to one of the summit expeditions, and a Swedish climber involved in the rescue effort put the death toll at 11.

"I have carried down both living and dead people from the mountain," the climber, Fredrik Straeng, told the Swedish news agency TT, explaining how he feared for his life when a Pakistani fell on top of him.

"I was terrified that he would pull us all off the cliff and screamed to him to use his ice axe, but he lost his grip and plummeted off a 300-metre cliff," Straeng told TT.

He said a large number of climbers decided to leave their camp at just over 7,000 metres to try to reach the summit after the skies cleared following a long period of poor weather...

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(Fair Use Excerpt)

Avalanche on K2, Second-Highest Mountain, Kills 11
By Khaleeq Ahmed and Sarah Thompson

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- An ice avalanche on K2, the world's second-highest mountain, has killed 11 people, said Nazir Sabir, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

``We have called a meeting with the expedition operators tomorrow and we will discuss a rescue operation,'' Shahzad Qaiser, Pakistan's secretary for tourism, told Bloomberg News in a phone interview. A statement will be issued tomorrow, he said.

Three of the 11 climbers were South Korean, two from Nepal, two from Pakistan, one from Serbia, one from France, one Norwegian and one from the Netherlands, according to Sabir, who helped arrange the Serbian mountaineer's trip.

The accident occurred Aug. 1 when a chunk of ice broke off, tearing fixed lines from a steep gully called the Bottleneck, according to Reuters. The deadliest day on K2 before this past weekend was Aug. 13, 1995, when six people disappeared during a storm, the news service said.

The 8,611-meter (28,253-foot) mountain, known as Chogori, or ``great mountain,'' in Pakistan, is on the border of Pakistan and China and was first conquered by two Italians on July 31, 1954. Mount Everest is the world's highest peak.

K2, also called the ``Savage Mountain,'' is considered by most climbers more dangerous than Everest. K2's slopes are steeper than 45 degrees, temperatures are below freezing and winds can exceed 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour).

Last year, Chris Warner, the founder of Earth Treks Inc. climbing centers in the mid-Atlantic region; Don Bowie, of California; and Bruce Normand, of Scotland, succeeded in reaching the K2 summit on July 20 after a seven-week climb, according to the Shared Summits Web site. The expedition was filmed for an NBC special...

 

[JagFarlane]

I hadn't realized just how much of a bitch K2 is. Everest gets all the attention, but K2 is a killer. At those altitudes, there's only a third as much oxygen in the atmosphere as there is at sea level. Here I am worrying about 14,000' in a couple of weeks.

K2 is technically, if I remember right, the hardest mountain in the world to climb. Everest is higher, but even its famed "North Face" is not as hard as K2 is. The problem is, nowadays, particularly with Everest a lot of rich folk are attempting to climb the mountain, just throwing money at whomever will guide them up. People die on these mountains, and they don't come down. The bodies on Everest, remain on Everest, its too much effort to try and bring a frozen body back down that mountain.

[rant]

A heads up, and forewarning, if you go climbing, always be prepared. Always train hard before a mountain, and ensure your equipment is in good, working order.
Years ago, I worked for an outdoors store that specialized in high end equipment [The kind you won't find at Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas, Dicks, etc. More the kind you'll find at REI, EMS, Ramseys, BRMS..etc]. Had a guy come in one day looking to outfit himself for Mt Ranier. Being as such, I asked the usual thousand questions involving seasonal frame, length of stay, etc etc. Turns out, he was buying his equipment the day before he left. I bit my lip, then looked him right in the eye "I can sell you these things, yes, however my own personal code won't allow me to send you unprepared. However, understand this, your guide sees your equipment is brand new, he/she may not take you up the mountain, as you're putting their life at risk." My manager backed me up on this...

[/rant]

 

[voluptuary_manque]

K2 is technically, if I remember right, the hardest mountain in the world to climb. Everest is higher, but even its famed "North Face" is not as hard as K2 is. The problem is, nowadays, particularly with Everest a lot of rich folk are attempting to climb the mountain, just throwing money at whomever will guide them up. People die on these mountains, and they don't come down. The bodies on Everest, remain on Everest, its too much effort to try and bring a frozen body back down that mountain.

[rant]

A heads up, and forewarning, if you go climbing, always be prepared. Always train hard before a mountain, and ensure your equipment is in good, working order.
Years ago, I worked for an outdoors store that specialized in high end equipment [The kind you won't find at Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas, Dicks, etc. More the kind you'll find at REI, EMS, Ramseys, BRMS..etc]. Had a guy come in one day looking to outfit himself for Mt Ranier. Being as such, I asked the usual thousand questions involving seasonal frame, length of stay, etc etc. Turns out, he was buying his equipment the day before he left. I bit my lip, then looked him right in the eye "I can sell you these things, yes, however my own personal code won't allow me to send you unprepared. However, understand this, your guide sees your equipment is brand new, he/she may not take you up the mountain, as you're putting their life at risk." My manager backed me up on this...

[/rant]

Good man! Yanno, everybody sees the rock climbers at Yosemite, the Flat Irons or Joshua Tree and thinks "God, that's dangerous!" It ain't, usually. Rock climbers work on belay have nice, solid rock to hold onto and generally live to ripe old ages. Ice climbers die! Ice is evil, unreliable, full of cravasses and the mountains that have icy tops have horrible, horrible weather. That's not "9 Die on K2". That's Another 9 die on K2. Some people's idea of a thrill or a challenge just baffles me.

 

[JagFarlane]

Good man! Yanno, everybody sees the rock climbers at Yosemite, the Flat Irons or Joshua Tree and thinks "God, that's dangerous!" It ain't, usually. Rock climbers work on belay have nice, solid rock to hold onto and generally live to ripe old ages. Ice climbers die! Ice is evil, unreliable, full of cravasses and the mountains that have icy tops have horrible, horrible weather. That's not "9 Die on K2". That's Another 9 die on K2. Some people's idea of a thrill or a challenge just baffles me.

Things can happen either way. A pinion could work its way out, ropes could get battered, you just lose your grip, and thats just rock climbing. Add in ice climbing, you, of course, have the ice, the cold freezes equipment, sweat can freeze against the body, the list goes on. Even highly experienced climbers die on these mountains. Its not to say that its too dangerous to do, but one must take these challenges seriously. You need to be in very good physical condition, good training, good equipment, the right mindset, and high respect for the mountain. Some ice climbers do live to ripe old ages, but they are the ones that took care during their climbs.

 

[trysail]

...
[rant]

A heads up, and forewarning, if you go climbing, always be prepared. Always train hard before a mountain, and ensure your equipment is in good, working order.
Years ago, I worked for an outdoors store that specialized in high end equipment [The kind you won't find at Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas, Dicks, etc. More the kind you'll find at REI, EMS, Ramseys, BRMS..etc]. Had a guy come in one day looking to outfit himself for Mt Ranier. Being as such, I asked the usual thousand questions involving seasonal frame, length of stay, etc etc. Turns out, he was buying his equipment the day before he left. I bit my lip, then looked him right in the eye "I can sell you these things, yes, however my own personal code won't allow me to send you unprepared. However, understand this, your guide sees your equipment is brand new, he/she may not take you up the mountain, as you're putting their life at risk." My manager backed me up on this...

[/rant]

Good on ya, Jag. Ultimately, it's impossible to protect people from themselves, but— maybe, just maybe— you put a little fear o'God in the numbskull.

"Them that knows nuthin' fears nuthin' "

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Sorry, but I just have a hard time working up any sympathy for climbers who buy it on risky-ass mountains like K2. Just like I can't work up a lot of tears for skydivers and bungee-jumpers who don't make it.

It's your bed: lie in it.

 

[jomar]

After reading a few mountain climbing books I thought, "Not for me." I mean, with that level of climbing it's really a race to get back down before you die, just from a physiological standpoint. Then throw in all the other stuff, like cold weather and storms. Just think about the guys who did it without oxygen. Amazing.

Not sure what to think when I read that Mt. Everest has so many (less/inexperienced) groups climbing and that they keep getting in each other's way. Ropes and trash and all kinds of shit to pass on the way up. Must take something away from the achievement.

 

[shereads]

After reading a few mountain climbing books I thought, "Not for me." I mean, with that level of climbing it's really a race to get back down before you die, just from a physiological standpoint. Then throw in all the other stuff, like cold weather and storms. Just think about the guys who did it without oxygen. Amazing.

Not sure what to think when I read that Mt. Everest has so many (less/inexperienced) groups climbing and that they keep getting in each other's way. Ropes and trash and all kinds of shit to pass on the way up. Must take something away from the achievement.

Reading Into Thin Air I was astonished at the power of the human ego.

Most chilling was the account of climbing parties who pass dying climbers on the trail and don't stop to share oxygen or help them down the mountain - because it would mean spoiling their own bid for the summit.

Hubris above all.

 

[Carnevil9]

Dying would be bad enough. But I absolutely do not want to be lying in my coffin, and having all my friends and loved ones shaking their heads and saying, "What a fucking dumbass!".......Carney (who figures they say that enough even while I'm alive)

 

[jomar]

Reading Into Thin Air I was astonished at the power of the human ego.

Most chilling was the account of climbing parties who pass dying climbers on the trail and don't stop to share oxygen or help them down the mountain - because it would mean spoiling their own bid for the summit.

Hubris above all.

Agreed.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Reading Into Thin Air I was astonished at the power of the human ego.

Most chilling was the account of climbing parties who pass dying climbers on the trail and don't stop to share oxygen or help them down the mountain - because it would mean spoiling their own bid for the summit.

Hubris above all.

That's what I mean. They know it's dangerous. In fact, the danger is the reason they do it. And then when things fuck up, we're supposed to treat it like a tragedy?

I mean, it's not like they were doing it for the betterment of mankind. They were basically showing off and daring nature to do her worst. And in this day and age when we've pretty much turned nature into an open sewer, there's almost a grim kind of horrid fascination in seeing her strike back against man's pride.

 

[trysail]

... They know it's dangerous. In fact, the danger is the reason they do it. And then when things fuck up, we're supposed to treat it like a tragedy?

I mean, it's not like they were doing it for the betterment of mankind. They were basically showing off and daring nature to do her worst. And in this day and age when we've pretty much turned nature into an open sewer, there's almost a grim kind of horrid fascination in seeing her strike back against man's pride.

Doc,
There have been books written on the "reason they do it."

Motivations differ. As was alluded by JagFarlane, nowadays there is a segment composed of the cocktail party crowd in pursuit of bragging rights. On the other hand, there are a great many folk who climb mountains because they enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from topping a difficult peak. Hell, something like 240 people have died on New Hampshire's 6,288' Mt. Washington. Possibly the most famous quote in the history of mountain climbing was George Mallory's response to the question of why he wanted to climb Everest (where he was eventually to die), "Because it's there."

Mother Nature has no mercy and no emotions; there is no anthropomorphism among those familiar with her. From the day of our birth, she works to kill us— by virus, pathogen, competitors, water, fire or wind. Sooner or later, she always succeeds.

 

[JagFarlane]

Dying would be bad enough. But I absolutely do not want to be lying in my coffin, and having all my friends and loved ones shaking their heads and saying, "What a fucking dumbass!".......Carney (who figures they say that enough even while I'm alive)

Honestly, you die on Everest, K2, or one of the other extreme peaks...your body won't be in a coffin. It'll remain on top of the mountain. There's often been talk of trying to go up and clean up the empty oxygen bottles and the bodies...but its too big of an undertaking. Up there, every ounce counts.

 

[trysail]

11 Presumed Dead, 3 Rescued On K2

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rs...0080804/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_missing_climbers
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer

A helicopter plucked two frostbitten Dutch climbers from K2 on Monday after an avalanche and exposure left at least 11 people presumed dead on the world's second-highest mountain. An Italian who was also stranded made his way down the slope with a rescue team after telling a colleague, "I am surely not going to give up now."

One of the rescued men, Wilco Van Rooijen, blamed mistakes in preparation for the final ascent — not just the avalanche — for one of mountaineering's worst disasters.

"Everything was going well to Camp Four and on summit attempt everything went wrong," Van Rooijen told The Associated Press by phone from a military hospital, where he was being treated for frostbitten toes.

K2, which lies near Pakistan's northern border with China, is regarded by mountaineers as more challenging to conquer than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. K2 is steeper, rockier and more prone to sudden, severe weather.

Van Rooijen said several expeditions waited through July for good weather to scale K2 and decided to go for the summit when winds dropped on Friday. In all, about two dozen climbers made the ascent, officials said.

But Van Rooijen said advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places on the 28,250-foot peak, including in a treacherous gully known as as "The Bottleneck."

"We were astonished. We had to move it. That took of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust it anymore," said Van Rooijen, 40.

He said those who went on reached the summit just before nightfall. As the fastest climbers descended in darkness across The Bottleneck, about 1,148 feet below the summit, a huge serac, or column of ice, fell. Rooijen said a Norwegian climber and two Nepalese sherpas were swept away. His own team was split up in the darkness.

The Ministry of Tourism released a list of 11 climbers believed dead: three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis and mountaineers from France, Ireland, Serbia and Norway.

At least two fell on their way up the mountain, before the avalanche.

Van Rooijen said after the avalanche there was a "whiteout" on the mountain — meaning cloud had descended, making it virtually impossible to see the precipitous route down. But he pushed on as he was starting to suffer snow blindness.

On his descent, he said he passed three South Koreans. They declined his offer of help.

"There was a Korean guy hanging upside down. There was a second Korean guy who held him with a rope but he was also in shock and then a third guy was there also, and they were trying to survive but I had also to survive," he said.

It was not immediately clear if they were the same three Koreans who died. Two other Koreans made it back to the base camp, which lies at about 16,400 feet, an organizer of their expedition said.

The Italian climber, Marco Confortola, descended to 20,340 feet but bad weather forced officials to abort a helicopter rescue Monday, said Shahzad Qaiser, a top official at the tourism ministry. He was climbing down on foot, despite frostbite, assisted by a support team from a base camp.

"Up there it was hell. During the descent, beyond 8,000 meters (26,000 feet), due to the altitude and the exhaustion I even fell asleep in the snow and when I woke up I could not figure out where I was," the ANSA news agency quoted Confortola as telling his brother Luigi by satellite phone.

"My hands are fine, while my feet are black from frostbite. Anyway, I can walk and I want to descend to the base camp."

Agostino Da Polenza of Everest-K2-CNR, an Italy-based high-altitude scientific research group, also spoke to Confortola on Monday.

"I never gave up in my life, I am surely not going to give up now," Da Polenza quoted the climber as saying on his group's Web site.

Another attempt was planned for Tuesday, Qaiser said.

The Irish climber, 37-year-old Gerard McDonnell, on Friday became the first person from his country to reach the summit of K2. He is believed to have died on the way down.

Pat Falvey, a family friend, said they "are holding up well and are very proud of Ger's achievement and are still in total shock in relation to the fact that he may not be coming back."

Before his death, 61-year-old Frenchman Hugues d'Aubarede gave an account of the climb — with freezing temperatures, bad weather and beautiful vistas — via a blog.

On the eve of his death, his last message from the foot of The Bottleneck was: "I would love it if everyone could contemplate this ocean of mountains and glaciers. They put me through the wringer, but it's so beautiful. The night will be long but beautiful."

The reported toll was the highest from a single incident on K2 since at least 1995, when seven climbers perished after being caught in a fierce storm.

About 280 people have summited K2 since 1954, when it was first conquered by Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedell. Dozens of deaths have been recorded since 1939, most of them occurring during the descent.

 

[shereads]

Doc,
There have been books written on the "reason they do it."

Motivations differ. As was alluded by JagFarlane, nowadays there is a segment composed of the cocktail party crowd in pursuit of bragging rights. On the other hand, there are a great many folk who climb mountains because they enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from topping a difficult peak. Hell, something like 240 people have died on New Hampshire's 6,288' Mt. Washington. Possibly the most famous quote in the history of mountain climbing was George Mallory's response to the question of why he wanted to climb Everest (where he was eventually to die), "Because it's there."

Mother Nature has no mercy and no emotions; there is no anthropomorphism among those familiar with her. From the day of our birth, she works to kill us— by virus, pathogen, competitors, water, fire or wind. Sooner or later, she always succeeds.

I've pursued a couple of risky sports - scuba diving despite the risk, and flying ultralights because of it. I was afraid. I felt compelled to overcome the fear.

I never lost the fear, but I triumphed over it and fed off of that triumph. After a weekend of flying I could face a week at job I loathed, armed with a sense of invulnerability. The fear of failure in the workplace can't begin to compete with the terror of landing a fragile airplane in a small field between power lines and pine trees.

So I get it, to an extent. There's something marvelously empowering about an activity in which a stupid mistake, or even a moment of inattention, could kill you.

Sebastian Junger, in his book Fire, notes that people with high-risk jobs (fire jumpers, swordfish boat crews, coal miners) have no need for risky sports. They face their monsters every day, out of necessity. Junger notes that our preshistoric ancestors were in danger of losing their lives on a daily basis, and that some part of us is still hard-wired to face and survive terrible odds using only our wits and will.

In other words, we don't climb Everest or K2 "because it is there." We do it because Enraged Wooly Mammoth isn't on the menu anymore.



Edited to add: I just read Jag's post re/the bodies left on the mountain (I remember that, too, from Into Thin Air.) I don't think it's the danger of climbing that makes the rest of us wonder WTF but the callousness of a sport in which the dead and not-quite-dead are part of the terrain.

 

[Munachi]

i can definitely understand the fascination of mountaineering, and it is something i often daydream about, and that i'd love to learn to do (though on a much smaller scale than everest or k2).

i guess there is a difference between a calculated risk and one where yuo have no idea what you are doing - there are people who are good at mountaineering, who have trained, and who still could die, and they know so, and with each thing they do they decide again whether the risk is too high or whether they want to take it. those i can understand. the dangerous thing is though when people like JagFarlane described have no idea what they are getting themselves into, and go in hordes up mountains that are much too dangerous for them, without even knowing how high the risk for themselves really is...

 

[trysail]

Another K2 victim:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Piotrowski_(mountaineer)

Tadeusz Piotrowski (mountaineer)

Tadeusz Piotrowski (1940 – 1986) was a Polish mountaineer and author of several books related to the subject. He has been referred to as "perhaps the finest winter mountaineer of his day".[1]

He began his career in the 1960s in Poland's Tatra Mountains, around the time when he was a student at the Szczecin University of Technology. He would go on to become one of the leading Polish mountaineers, known worldwide as a winter climbing specialist. He was one of the earliest mountaineers to specialize in winter climbing.

His best known climbs, usually first along the given path, and most of them in winter, include: Trollryggen, Norway in winter 1972, Noshaq, Afghanistan in winter 1973, Trollryggen, Norway in winter 1974, Trollryggen, Norway in winter 1977, Tirich Mir, Afghanistan in 1978, Rakaposhi, Pakistan in 1979, Distaghil Sar, Pakistan in 1980, Api, Nepal in winter 1983 and K2 in China/Pakistan in summer 1986.

In 1974 his climbing companion, Stanisław Latałło, died on Lhotse; whether Piotrowski could have helped him caused some controversy among Polish mountaineers.[2] In 1983 Piotrowski directed the winter ascent on Api mountain (7132 meters above see level), and reached its peak on Christmas Eve. He was accompanied by Andrzej Bieluń, who climbed at the head, and was lost, assumed dead near the top of the mountain.

Piotrowski died on 10 July 1986. Two days previously he had finished - with Jerzy Kukuczka - the first ascent of the South Face of K2 (also called the "Polish Line") - a very difficult and dangerous route which was threatened by seracs and had been called "suicidal" by Reinhold Messner.[3] "The route is so avalanche-prone, that no one else has ever considered a new attempt."[4] It was during the descent by a classic route (the Abruzzi Spur) that he lost both his crampons and fell to his death at the height of around 7900 meters, following two exhausting stopovers at the wall with no food or water.[5] The route Piotrowski and Kukuczka climbed remains unrepeated.[a]

For his mountaineering successes, Tadeusz Piotrowski became a four-time recipient of the highest sports medal in Poland, the Gold Medal for the Exceptional Sporting Achievements.